Police (Union) Brutality: Montgomery County Police “Effects” Bargaining Bludgeons Public Safety

Openmarket.org

This November, voters in Montgomery County, Maryland, will decide whether the police chief or union boss should determine public safety policy.

The voter initiative, which will appear on the ballot as Question B, reads, “Shall the Act to modify the scope of collective bargaining with police employees to permit the exercise of certain management rights without first bargaining the effects of those rights on police employees become law?” A vote in favor of Question B eliminates effects bargaining.

Question B’s origins began in 2011, when the all-Democratic County Council unanimously passed legislation to repeal the union’s power to challenge, then bargain, over basic police chief directives. Before the reform, police department management needed union approval to implement any new policy. Even asking officers to check their email became a contentious ordeal. The union power over management derived from what is called “effects” bargaining, a privilege the local police union does not intend to lose.

http://www.openmarket.org/2012/10/23